issues over matters

Monday, 13 July 2015

There is not a lot to admire about the Gambian President
Yahya Jammeh with his numerous titles but it is his latest addition that makes
one sit up. The title is Babili Mansa or bridge builder. Of course it is not
about adopting it but rather internalising what the title is all about.

For a country like Zambia with a much changed political
landscape from 2011 when the Patriotic Front (PF) took over and tribal talk
took centre stage between the predominant ethnic group behind the ruling party—the
Bemba—and that of opposition United Party for National Development (UPND)—the
Tonga, the country would definitely need a leader who would build bridges not
only between the two groups but among all 73 recognised ethnic groups.

What surprised most Zambians recently was President Edgar
Lungu coming up with a statement threatening to deal with some Tonga people who allegedly met at the recent Lwiindi Ceremony and discussed the possible
secession of Southern Province from the rest of Zambia. If such a meeting was
held, it was probably a very private and secretive meeting but the President
being the President, he probably received an intelligence report about it.

Discussing secession and certainly acting it out is treasonable in many jurisdictions
and Zambia is no exception. But assuming this topic came up among Tonga—mostly
traditional—leaders, it is obviously in the wake of what the PFSecretary General Davis Chama said about the ethnic group with its
polygamous practices taking 100 years of procreation for them to have
sufficient numbers to produce a President.

Secession or the attempt of it is borne out of many factors
and some of them being alienation, political and economic marginalisation,
harassment and mockery of minority ethnic groups by the majority or bigger
ethnic and politically influential groups.

Threatening advocates of secession, arresting them or even
killing them through some form of civil war just gives birth to “freedom
fighters” who gain more sympathy from compatriots. The history of the world is
replete with secessions and secession causes. In Africa, the latest country to
win its secession cause is South Sudan which has just celebrated its fourth
independence anniversary and there are other failed causes such as Biafra in
Nigeria in which up to a million Nigerians in the south eastern part of the
country lost their lives.

Dr John Garang

When leader of the Sudan Peoples’ Liberation Army (SPLA), the late Dr
John Garang De Mabior, launched a diplomatic offensive to meet a number of
African leaders way back in the late 1980s when Sudan was under the leadership
of strongman, Jafaar Nimiery, nobody thought the ragtag army would go as far as
splitting the biggest African country then into half many years later.

Elsewhere in Africa, Ethiopia lost one of its regions,
Eritrea, which seceded from the country after a referendum in 1993. Other
countries such as Angola have had to deal with issues of secession with the
enclave of Cabinda separated from mainland Angola by a sliver of Democratic
Republic of Congo land, battling for decades to form a separate country.

In Zambia itself, there is the burning issue of Barotseland
in which some activists have been calling for the secession of the region most
Zambians call Western Province.

Zambia’s former colonial master, Britain, just saw one of
its constituent nations, Scotland, losing a referendum for independence from
the United Kingdom.

With divisive statements like Chama’s statement, ethnic
groups such as the Tongas would get hurt when they are told that as minority
groups, they would never produce a head of state unless they improved their demographic
numbers.

Of course people do point to President Frederick Chiluba as being a
Chishinga, obviously aligned to the Bemba, Kenneth Kaunda as a Henga—a Tumbuka
dialect—but we all know he aligned himself with the Bemba, Levy Mwanawasa as
Lenje/Lamba but of course we cannot forget the massive support he received from
Chiluba.

Admittedly, on the second day of writing this blog, I saw a
statement from President Lungu agreeing with UPND leader Hakainde Hichilema
that discussing issues of tribalism—and by extension secession—took away from
most important issues affecting Zambia such as the current shortage of
electricity, the closure of universities and the economy in general. (As I am finishing up, there is a notice calling Tongas to meet in Monze at the end ofthis month to discuss Chama’s statement).

As I set out to write about the title bridge builder
borrowed from President Jammeh, the Zambian leader ought to identify and
isolate toxic people surrounding him whose only political relevancy has been to
strike a wedge between different ethnic groups in Zambia. Zambia’s politicians
enjoying political power today need to be sensitive about how they handle
issues of ethnicity. It does not do for lead politicians to hate with a passion
certain ethnic groups because they did not vote them.

Friday, 10 July 2015

Sembe—that word that Zambians have for a long time
associated with football which simply means if—President Edgar Chagwa Lungu had
not commented on the issue of one lawyer Robson Malipenga, one politician
Wright Musona and a less known citizen by the name of Mumba going to court
arguing that a president is elected for five years meaning that there should be
no presidential election in 2016, maybe the issue would have died a natural
death.

President Lungu explained how he had heard about the
proceedings filed in court by Musona and Mumba represented by Malipenga as he
was flying out to Mozambique to attend that country’s 40 years of independence a
few weeks back. He said something about him being a lawyer and understanding
the constitution which he swore before the people and God to protect but that
it was a debate worth following and left it to the courts to interpret what the
petitioners were praying for.

Zambia has had the misfortune of losing two sitting
presidents within six years between 2008 and 2014. The first to die in office
was third republican president Levy Patrick Mwanawasa who was succeeded by his
then Vice President Rupiah Banda who was confirmed as a president in an
election that is provided for in the constitution following the demise of a
sitting president. Banda automatically took over as head of state subject to an
election within 90 days.

The second president to die in office was Michael Chilufya
Sata who was immediately replaced by his Vice President Guy Scott who had never
acted in the higher capacity for reasons best known to Sata himself but
believed to be related to the constitutional provision that a person with one or
two of the parents foreign born cannot be president in this former British
colony.

The ruling Patriotic Front (PF) went through a tumultuous
process to choose President Sata’s successor which saw a bevy of 11 senior
cadres ranging from his widow Dr Catherine Kaseba, his son Mulenga, nephew
Miles Sata to hitherto politically unknown Edgar Lungu whose political star had
shone brightly when he was appointed PF secretary general after the dismissal
of once powerful but seemingly divisive Wynter Kabimba. Lungu also simultaneously
held two ministerial portfolios of Legal Affairs and Defence. He has held on to
the Defence portfolio as President.

As the man who was left with the instruments of power on the
trip on which President Sata was to succumb to a medical condition or
conditions that his government never disclosed even though it was an open
secret that the man was ailing, Lungu was seen as the anointed one, a selling
point his supporters exploited. By hook or crook, the lanky lawyer turned
politician saw off his PF challengers to become the party’s republican
presidential challengers and eventually won the January 20 national election.

But barely six months into office, a fringe politician and a
fringe citizen represented by a fringe lawyer, have petitioned the High Court
arguing that the constitution says a president is elected for five years which
means therefore that Lungu should go up to 2020, foregoing the 2016 election.

From secondary school Civics, we learn that the Zambian
politico-administrative system has borrowed the presidential system from the
United States and the parliamentary system from Britain. At the apex of the
Zambian system is the president who is elected by universal adult suffrage and
Members of Parliament who are elected by constituents in the 150 parliamentary
locales in the country.

The President and Parliament

One thing that does not need any argument is the fact that
the tenure of the Zambian president is tied to the life of parliament which
lasts five years. The president is elected together with the MPs in what has
been known all along as presidential and general elections and recently with
the addition of local government as councillors now serve five year terms from
previous three year term.

As the life of a five year cycle of parliament comes to an
end, the president dissolves parliament and he technically loses his position
except that he remains in his position with the help of civil servants
represented by permanent secretaries of various ministries and departments
until after a presidential and general election when he is either re-elected or
hands over to a newly elected individual.

As a Zambian citizen, I wish that the courts of law will be
sensible enough to see through this case and decide for what is
constitutionally correct for the country in that even if—God forbid—a president
died every year, we still would have an election every 90 days until the fifth
year when we would have a president who would live for five years to face a normal
presidential and general election.

"I [am] presidential spokesman and
I can tell you that the petitioners are strangers to us. Secondly and most
instructive, the lawyer representing them is a member and fundraiser of the
opposition communist Rainbow [P]arty of [M]r [K]abimba. [I]t is also
interesting that only one newspaper seems to know the actual date, hour and
minute when those vanity individuals turn up to entertain themselves at
court... This President [Lungu] has won all the parliamentary by[-] elections
and the majority of local by[-]elections that have taken place since he was
elected five months ago. We [are] on course to win more next Tuesday, what is
there to fear in the 2015 polls when we have consolidated the incumbency,
remember we won even when the acting president wished the opposition won...”

Friday, 3 July 2015

When Supreme Court Judge Elizabeth Muyovwe confirmed the
High Court judgement nullification of Dora Siliya’s 2011 election as Petauke
Central Member of Parliament, she said there was overwhelming evidence of
widespread corruptionin the run up to the election.

Similarly, Kapembwa Simbao lost his Senga Hill seat on the
MMD ticket in a petition filed by Giles Yambayamba on grounds that there was a
number of electoral malpractices. The petitioner had contended that the election had been characterized by
widespread undue influence, bribery, intimidation, voter treating and electoral
malpractices.

Make no mistake about it, many more MPs, especially from the opposition,
have lost their seats on grounds among them corruption and abusing the
electoral process. But what is of interest, however, is that the ruling
Patriotic Front (PF) through its then Secretary General Wynter Kabimbatried to block the re-contesting of the
seats by those whose seats had been nullified.
It is no wonder that the by-elections for Petauke Central, Malambo and
Mulobezi constituencies took nearly two years to be held instead of the normal
90 days within a seat being declared vacant either by the High Court when there
is no contest, or the Supreme Court when the lower court’s judgment is
contested or if the vacancy is caused other circumstances such as death.
I know that the PF has not, since it came into power in September 2011, issued
any strong anti-corruption statement. The closest the late President Michael
Sata came close to issuing any statement concerning the vice was when he said
that if the Anti-Corruption Commission wanted to investigate senior government
officials like ministers they needed to seek permission from him.
This was at the height of allegations and counter-allegations between once
powerful Kabimba and former Defence Minister Geoffrey Bwalya Mwamba accusingeach other of impropriety.

As an outsider, it is difficult to say with certainty why
the PF adopted Siliya and Simbao but it is clear that the ruling party knows
the type of electorate they deal with, people who do not question decisions
made for them. In other jurisdictions, the mere nullification of an MP’s seat
on account of what Siliya and Simbao’s seats were nullified, their names would
not appear on the next ballot paper and other future ballot papers.

It should be pointed out however that the fact that Siliya
and Simbao won the by-election on the ruling party ticket despite the baggage
from the petition shows that they are strong candidates in themselves.

But adopting the two apparently sends a message that
corruption is ok as long as you belong to the ruling party. I mean how does one
explain the fact that the PF petitioned more than 50 opposition seats, costly
by-elections held and the ruling party started adopting opposition members who
had lost seats at its behest.